Wisconsin Congress Members Condemn Musk Takeover
Baldwin, Moore, Pocan outraged. Republican Glenn Grothman not sure.
Tammy Baldwin and Glenn Grothman.
Businessman Elon Musk‘s seeming takeover of major government departments is causing alarm among members of Wisconsin’s Democratic congressional delegation. The billionaire and major financial backer of Donald Trump‘s campaign for the presidency has been given unprecedented authority by Trump to make sweeping changes to the U.S. government.
“The Elon Musk takeover of the executive branch is already causing chaos, confusion, and putting Americans’ sensitive information at risk, including their Social Security numbers and banking information,” said Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) in a statement to Urban Milwaukee.
Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin offered this tweet on X, the website owned by Musk: “Elon Musk—an unelected billionaire—cannot just force his way into gaining access to Wisconsinites’ most sensitive information and our nation’s checkbook so he can slash programs Wisconsin families rely on. Is he coming after Social Security? Veterans healthcare? It has to stop.”
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) offered these tweets: “When Elon Musk bought Donald Trump, he bought access to your private financial information. The Scammer-in-Chief has crypto bro interns digging through everything from your bank accounts to Social Security number… Let’s be clear: No one elected Elon Musk. The world’s richest man should not have backdoor access to our government’s financial systems. How much more control of our country will the Republican Majority give to billionaire elites?”
All were reacting to Musk and a group of assistants, calling themselves the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, seizing control over the federal government’s human resources department, the Office of Personnel Management, and gaining access to the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system in what appears to be an effort to monitor and reduce government spending.
But that is just the start of Musk’s goals, as the New York Times has reported. Musk and his allies have made “aggressive incursions into at least half a dozen government agencies,” including taking over the United States Digital Service, announcing the shutdown USAID, a key source of foreign assistance, and discussed eliminating 50% of the General Services Administration‘s budget.
Musk and company are also “waging a largely unchecked war against the federal bureaucracy…They bombarded federal employees with messages suggesting they were lazy and encouraging them to leave their jobs.”
“Billionaire Elon Musk’s power grab continues to come at the expense of the American people,” Moore declared. “Democrats will fight back any way we can.”
“I’m committed to getting Elon Musk out of the federal government,” Pocan tweeted. “Are you? He needs to feel the pain as he dismantles government services to get a big tax cut. That’s what this is all about. Every lever we have – legislative, judicial, public pressure. Musk needs to go now.”
Wisconsin’s Republican members of Congress, including U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, and representatives Bryan Steil, Tom Tiffany, Tony Wied, Scott Fitzgerald and Derrick Van Orden have so far offered no criticism of Musk’s efforts in press releases or on Twitter.
Veteran Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman of Greenbush, whose district includes much of Ozaukee County and a mostly rural area to the north and west, told Urban Milwaukee he’d heard little from fellow Republicans about it. “I’ve just gotten back to Washington,” he said, “and the few congressman I talked to, I don’t think there would be a lot of concern.”
What about the shutdown of the USAID office? “I think USAID is kind of screwed up,” Grothman said. “I don’t think they shut it down forever. They’re going to shut it down for a couple months… I guess I don’t know that,” he added.
Musk described it this way on X: “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” he said on Monday.
But Grothman speculated that some elected official okayed this. “He’s not a cabinet member,” he said of Musk. “He’s just a guy. I assume if he took action to shut down the office of A.I.D. someone in the executive branch is literally signing an order — and I don’t know for sure — saying this should be done.”
Grothman said he expected Republicans to meet and discuss Musk’s actions.
At least four lawsuits have been filed in federal court to challenge Musk’s authority and the actions taken, “but it remains to be seen if judicial review can keep up with Mr. Musk,” the Times speculated.
Nor is it clear what Democrats, who are a minority in both houses of Congress, can do to prevent what appears to be an unconstitutional series of actions by Musk. Only a strong stand by Republican members of Congress seems likely to have any influence on Trump.
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Read something by David Dayen in The Prospect regarding the DOGE (Dangerous Oligarchs Grabbing Everything) takeover of the US payment system. (Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025),
“If you believe the people who actually have run the system for years, some 25-year-old former SpaceX employee named Marko Elez has administrative, read/write access to the system, which is responsible for 88 percent of all payments made by the federal government…
Josh Marshall adds that “extensive” code changes have already been made, and that staffers who know the system are half-helping, basically because they know he could blow it up if he’s not careful…
One misstep with code could blow up the ordinary, smooth functioning of four million payments a day, with dire consequences almost across the board.
Nathan Tankus writes in a newsletter,
“We are in such a catastrophic situation I do not have the words to describe. It is getting worse and very little is being done. Lawsuits have been launched to stop this on privacy grounds, but we need so much more. Strongly worded letters from congress are not enough. There is a protest at the Treasury today. This is not a newsletter to tell you how to organize or engage in political action. But wherever you are, whatever your context, get involved in resisting the Trump’s administration’s catastrophic lawlessness and destruction. And get the word out about the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025, which is the crisis above all the crises happening concurrently. I wish my newsletter’s name were a little less literally true right now”.
Are critics of the efforts by DOGE being hyperbolic? Don’t know but why is this being allowed in the first place?
It takes quite a bit to get a hesitation from the very right-wing Grothman.
How is this so partisan? One side can’t be so uninterested in the future that they haven’t the slightest level of concern, can they? Follow the money, I guess … All of these jokers must be on the take and there ain’t sh*t all our “presumed innocent until proven guilty at ludicrously slow speed” justice system can do about it.
I did pass this on to Ron Johnson for his reference. I asked him to explain his position to the citizens of Wisconsin . I look forward to his take on it.😳
@Maryg – Look forward to that and hope you post it on this thread.
steenwyr:
It is partisan for one reason, and one reason only. All Republicans in Congress are gutless, spineless stooges for Frump and his Circus of Clowns that are running our federal government, our democracy and our country down the proverbial crapper. It’s happening right here under our noses, and in real time.
The consequences of elections matter, and far too many people in this country chose to vote “their conscience” based on the price of eggs and gasoline. We were all warned repeatedly pre-election of what would happen with the outcome we are now facing, and this is our reality until something dramatic happens to change it.
“Only a strong stand by Republican members of Congress seems likely to have any influence on Trump.”
Bruce, this is possibly the funniest sentence you have ever written! I literally laughed out loud when I read it.
Trump is unhinged and unchecked. That is a terrible combination for our government and our nation. He knows he has no guardrails in terms of actual, true advisors because he only chose lemmings to fill those roles. And he has the blessings from on high from the Supreme Court to act with total impunity.
This country elected a self-professed dictator, and a dictator is what we got.
@TosaGramps1315: for so many, “voting their conscience” meant owning the Libs and proudly being anti-woke (whatever tf that means) Think they’re “woke” to this catastrophe yet? The pain that’s coming won’t be doled out purely by red to blue, although there may be more for blue states. But every blue state has these Trump for Christ voters, and they’ll be getting gored by the same ox.
One of the steps in the fascist playbook is to exploit legal gray areas to take control. Moving faster than the courts can respond, they take possession before legality can be established, fully knowing how much more difficult it is retake control and undo damage afterward.
Since the DOGE authority is ill-defined, legislators need to exploit the poor legal definition situation the same way by using authorities to PHYSICALLY INTERVENE to stop the damage immediately. Likw=ewise, the legality of those actions can be sorted out afterward.
This must be the message communicated to our erpresentatives. Courts are not enough.
Glenn Grothman is either woefully uninformed for his position, incompetent to defend his oath, or too afraid to oppose his party. Take your pick.
Mr-cox: trifecta of ignorance, incompetence and azz kissery
Lizwah, he really is content to be an obediant foot soldier for the party. I’m sure it makes his life easier to outsource his opinions and positions.
mr_cox: Grothman scores the hat trick on the gutless, lazy and weasel-like descriptions you have offered up.
Lizwah: Let’s not forget the Trump IS Christ voters.
In answer to your question about whether or not the Trumpers are “woke” to the catastrophe that is being unleashed upon the American public….
No. Trumpers are blind to anything he says or does that can be construed as the least bit controversial. All of it falls into their ill-defined, bottomless pit position to drain the swamp – whatever tf that means, as well. Our government is dying a death by a thousand cuts, and all the lawsuits in the world will not be able to stop it.
The Dems better get off their collective butts, put their heads together and shelve some of their crazy progressive ideas to counter this BS now.
Step One: Convince Chuck Schumer to step down from his minority leadership role. He insisted Biden step down. Now it is his turn to do the same.
I agree with all the above statements.. Now, how do we fight / combat it?
DBeach, first step is to embolden our congresspeople by letting them know their constituents recognize a coup is underway and that they should not doubt it’s occurring nor fear the public won’t support them if they call it out. This is a crucial step. Coup supporrters are denying it’s happening and resistors are fearing losing credibility for naming it publicly.
Second step is to explain to your congresspersons that these extra-legal actions succeed only by outpacing legal challenges. By the time the courts can address, if they address, control will have ben consolidated and some irreversible damage done. Encourage them to take extralegal actions to protect government agencies, like sending police/guards/seargents at arms to arrest coup actors. They may balk at the idea at first, but there’s no reason to stand by and allow the coup actors to succeed because they’re the only ones to dare to break the law.
Third step is to develop your own resistance networks. Not anything so dramatic as organizing physical resistance, although that may be needed at some point, but more to discuss the situation, help others to understand the reality, encourage them to contact congress, reassure each other and offer support to each other if needed.
Fourth step is to coordinate passive resistance with your group. Things as simple as informing others of their rights, calling out extralegal activities that may be encountered, like immigrant snatches, in the moment, etc. Once again, extralegal actions, like home or transit searches, are conducted without authority. Often calling out ICE agents’ lack of arrest authority is enough to make them drop it and leave.
Fifth step, consider joining organized protests. It’s not for everybody and is risky, so don’t feel bad if you choose not to, but do consider it.
TosaGramps1315, I agree establishment Democrats must get directly involved or get out of the way for more energized party members like AOC, Ilhan Omar, etc